Sack pack gets to Mines

CSU-Pueblo defense decks Orediggers quarterback

Colorado State University-Pueblo's Josh Croy, center, gets past defender Kyle Gilbert, left, to sack Mines' quarterback Joe Schneider during the first half of the Thunderwolves' game against the Colorado School of Mines on Oct. 19, 2013 in Pueblo, Colo. (Chris McLean, The Pueblo Chieftain)

BY JOE E. CERVI
The Pueblo CHieftain

Published: October 20, 2013;Last modified: October 20, 2013 05:00AM

The offense employed by the Colorado School of Mines football team is much like that advanced calculus class taught to freshmen in Golden.

The Orediggers like to throw a lot at their opponents, just to see if they can handle it.

Colorado State University-Pueblo passed with flying colors.

The ThunderWolves sacked Mines quarterbacks nine times and rolled to a 48-28 win Saturday night at the Neta & Eddie DeRose ThunderBowl.

Their effort was so good that even Hunter Hughes, the defensive coordinator in a perpetual bad mood during the season, was happy.

“We told our guys that they would get better every play in this game,” Hughes said. “We tried to collapse the pocket from the outside in and force the quarterback inside. After the first couple of series, we did a good job the rest of the game.”

EXTRA POINTS: The Pack played without wide receiver Kieren Duncan. He missed the game because of a groin injury. Duncan had put together back-to-back 100-yard receiving games … QB Chris Bonner is tops in the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conferece in passing efficiency and he didn’t hurt his numbers Saturday as he threw two touchdowns and no interceptions … The Pack finished in plus-territory in turnover margin, picking off two passes and recovering a fumble (its 12th recovery on the season) … CSU-Pueblo has won a Division II-best 33 consecutive regular-season games and 27 consecutive games in the RMAC (one away from the record).

A LOOK AHEAD: The ThunderWolves will make their first trip to Black Hills State in Spearfish, S.D., next week. The Yellow Jackets lost to Chadron State 43-13 on Saturday.